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" Unknown Legend" is a song written by Neil Young that was first released on his 1992 album Harvest Moon. Although it was only released as a promotional single, it reached #38 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
The lyrics describe a woman who had worked in a diner and rode a Harley Davidson, but now is raising two children. The lyrics were inspired by multiple people. Nigel Williamson feels that the lyric about how the woman used to work in a diner was inspired by Young's first wife Susan Acevedo and that the lyrics about an "unknown legend" who is raising two kids but still has "the far away look in her eyes" were inspired by his later wife Pegi Young, and music critic Johnny Rogan agrees that the character described by the lyrics seems to be a combination of the two. Young biographer Glen Boyd similarly sees a portrait of Pegi in the lyrics about working in a diner and raising two kids, as well as in a line about "her long blonde hair flowin' in the wind." Nonetheless, Young has described his inspiration as being more expansive, stating:
Young biographer David Downing sees the song as one of several on Harvest Moon that describe Americans feeling a deep sense of loss for unknown reasons in 1992.
AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine considers "Unknown Legend" to be one of Young's best songs, describing it as "lovely". McDonough describes it as "perhaps the empathetic portrait of a woman Young ever created. Greenwald calls the arrangement "exquisite" and comments how the lyrics provide a "clear" and "cinematic" picture of the female protagonist.
Reception
In a 2016 Rolling Stone magazine readers poll, "Unknown Legend" ranked as Young's 4th best post-1970s song. It reached #38 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Live performances
Young performed "Unknown Legend" for his 1993 MTV Unplugged concert and it was included on his Unplugged album. For the Unplugged concert, Astrid Young and Nicolette Larson performed the backing vocal that Ronstadt performed on the Harvest Moon album. Young later played the song live on his 2015 tour.
Popular culture
The song was performed by Tunde Adebimpe, of the band TV on the Radio, in the 2008 film Rachel Getting Married starring Anne Hathaway.
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